Survey shock: San Francisco not among “gayest” cities

If you come across a survey of the nation’s “gayest” cities, you naturally expect San Francisco to figure in the rankings. In fact you’d be surprised if it didn’t hold the number one spot, right?

Well think again. In The Advocate’s newly released “Gayest Cities in America” list, not only does our fair city not make the top slot, it isn’t in the league table at all.

Before the entire gay population of the Bay Area rushes to The Advocate’s website to complain, we should explain that the author of the (self-declared arbitrary) survey, Mike Albo, is deliberatly seeking out secondary cities that are becoming gay epicenters. San Francisco has proved itself in this regard a long time ago.

From a real-estate perspective, Albo does make a valid point, however:

Long ago, gay people settled in our nation’s largest cities. There they spruced up all the property, created every art and fashion movement, and taught entire populations how to dance. They created gayborhoods like WeHo, Chelsea, South Beach — and pretty much queered all of San Francisco until even Laundromats had rainbow flag decals in their windows. About 10 years ago everyone else moved back into these nicely gentrified metropolises, and the lavender diaspora began.

And in case you are wondering about those new gay epicenters, the top five, according to Albo’s methodology — which includes analysing “gay films in Netflix favorites” — are Atlanta, Burlington, Vt, Iowa City, Bloomington, Ind, and Madison, Wis. Who’d have thunk it?